* [Topics](/en/topics "Topics") * [DevOps](/en/topics/devops "DevOps") * What is a DevOps engineer? What is a DevOps engineer? ========================== Published January 8, 2019•*1*-minute readCopy URL * [What is a DevOps engineer?](#what-is-a-devops-engineer) * [What do they do?](#what-do-they-do) * [DevOps essentials](#devops-essentials) * [How to become a DevOps engineer](#how-to-become-a-devops-engineer) What is a DevOps engineer? -------------------------- A [DevOps](/en/topics/devops) engineer is someone skilled in both IT development and operations. They bring process improvements, tools, and methodologies to the software development lifecycle to increase efficiency and get software from concept to release quickly. [See our full list of DevOps courses](/en/services/training/all-courses-exams "Red Hat training") What does a DevOps engineer do? ------------------------------- DevOps engineers reduce complexity, closing the gap between actions needed to quickly change an application, and the tasks that maintain its reliability. Development teams and IT operations teams can have different skills and different goals. Developers want to introduce new features to an application, while operations teams want to preserve the stability of an application once it is released. DevOps is all about the unification and automation of processes, and DevOps engineers are instrumental in combining code, application maintenance, and application management. All of these tasks rely on understanding not only development life cycles, but DevOps culture, and its philosophy, practices, and tools. Within an agile environment, developers, system administrators, and programmers can be siloed, working on the same product but not sharing information necessary to ensure value to the user. Some organizations may hire professionals to "perform DevOps" within their workflows, but because successful DevOps adoption depends on changes to culture and process, this may just deepen the disconnect between developers and operational teams. [DevOps transformation takes practice](/en/resources/transformation-takes-practice-open-practice-library-ebook "Transformation takes practice") Red Hat Resources ----------------- [Keep readingIcon-Red\_Hat-Directional-A-Black-RGB](/en/resources "Keep reading") DevOps essentials ----------------- DevOps engineers build new skills on top of their current experience. Tasks like [data management](/en/topics/data-services/what-is-data-management) and library updates for new product releases combine with needs for leadership and collaboration across teams. It is important for DevOps engineers to understand the fundamentals of application development and delivery. ### Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) You and your teams can build and test changes, add to repositories, and deploy updates quickly and efficiently. [What is CI/CD?](/en/topics/devops/what-is-ci-cd-1) ### Security DevOps processes such as [CI/CD security](/en/topics/security/what-is-cicd-security) can be used to safeguard code pipelines with automated checks and testing to prevent vulnerabilities in software delivery. ​[Learn more about DevSecOps](/en/topics/devops/what-is-devsecops) How to become a DevOps engineer ------------------------------- Most professionals embracing DevOps culture combine tools and practices with years of enterprise IT experience. Think about acquiring knowledge outside of your skill set—and maybe outside of your team— in order to gain the holistic view needed to become a DevOps engineer. At Red Hat, we have resources to help you and your organization on your way to DevOps: * DevOps Culture and Practice Enablement (DO500): Our 5-day immersive training unites practical application of tools with DevOps implementation strategies and best practices. * Open Innovation Labs: With our experts on hand, experience a comprehensive, interactive residency designed to ready your teams for innovation. * Certifications: Verify your expertise, and demonstrate your grasp of DevOps practices. [See our full list of DevOps courses](/en/services/training/all-courses-exams) Hub The official Red Hat blog ------------------------- Get the latest information about our ecosystem of customers, partners, and communities. [Keep readingIcon-Red\_Hat-Directional-A-Black-RGB](/en/blog "The official Red Hat blog") All Red Hat product trials -------------------------- Our no-cost product trials help you gain hands-on experience, prepare for a certification, or assess if a product is right for your organization. [Learn moreIcon-Red\_Hat-Directional-A-Black-RGB](/en/products/trials "All Red Hat product trials") Keep reading ------------ ### What is a GitOps workflow? GitOps is a modern software development and deployment approach where the entire infrastructure and application lifecycle is managed through Git repositories as the single source of truth. [Read the articleIcon-Red\_Hat-Directional-A-Black-RGB](/en/topics/devops/what-is-gitops-workflow "article | What is a GitOps workflow?") ### What is Observability? Observability refers to the ability to monitor, measure, and understand the state of a system or application by examining its outputs, logs, and performance metrics. [Read the articleIcon-Red\_Hat-Directional-A-Black-RGB](/en/topics/devops/what-is-observability "article | what is observability") ### What is CI/CD? CI/CD, which stands for continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment, aims to streamline and accelerate the software development lifecycle. [Read the articleIcon-Red\_Hat-Directional-A-Black-RGB](/en/topics/devops/what-is-ci-cd "article | What is CI/CD?") DevOps resources ---------------- ### Related content * Blog post [Bringing Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Windows Subsystem for Linux](/en/blog/bringing-red-hat-enterprise-linux-windows-subsystem-linux) * Blog post [Red Hat and Deloitte Collaborate to Modernize the Developer Experience](/en/blog/red-hat-and-deloitte-collaborate-modernize-developer-experience) * Detail [State of platform engineering in the age of AI](/en/resources/state-of-platform-engineering-age-of-ai) * Detail [State of platform engineering in the age of AI](/en/engage/state-of-platform-engineering-age-of-ai) ### Related articles * [What is a GitOps workflow?](/en/topics/devops/what-is-gitops-workflow) * [What is Helm?](/en/topics/devops/what-is-helm) * [What is Argo CD?](/en/topics/devops/what-is-argocd) * [What is Observability?](/en/topics/devops/what-is-observability) * [What is CI/CD?](/en/topics/devops/what-is-ci-cd) * [What is GitOps?](/en/topics/devops/what-is-gitops) * [Security in the software development lifecycle](/en/topics/security/software-development-lifecycle-security) * [What is a CI/CD pipeline?](/en/topics/devops/what-cicd-pipeline) * [What is blue green deployment?](/en/topics/devops/what-is-blue-green-deployment) [More about this topicIcon-Red\_Hat-Directional-A-Black-RGB](/en/topics/devops "More about this topic")